Crafty

January 2017

Greetings and Happy New Year. Here's hoping that 2017 won't be as brutal on cultural celebrities as last year.

I have been in Michigan since June 2014 providing elder care to my mother. Not much time for blogging or grave hunting in the past few years. I hate resolutions but if I have to make one it will be to carve out some "me time" to explore local cemeteries and get back to blogging. I sure have missed it.

Some things to think about when grave hunting back in my hometown: we have to get creative with the celebrity angle here in Oakland County. Here's one that I found this summer while taking a drive with Mom.

Cemeteries in the winter time here is also a different experience versus California. That should afford some great photography opportunities, too.

By Lisa Burks

Exploring History From The Ground Up!

I enjoy spending time exploring cemeteries, reading and photographing headstones of celebrities and civilians alike, and learning about the lives and deaths of these so-called "permanent residents" of the graveyards and mausoleums. This blog chronicles those experiences.

One of the cemeteries I'm most interested in these days is Grand View Memorial Park in Glendale, Calif. I wrote about its legal problems for the LA Daily News' community hub, ValleyNews.com from August 2006 to December 2008, when Valley News ceased operations. In response to reader requests to have one central source of information, I created and continue to maintain Grand View Memorial Park (dot) Info.

"We've gotten a front-row seat to all the twists and turns
taking place at the beleaguered cemetery, Grand View Memorial Park, from an intrepid citizen journalist named Lisa Burks." ~ Jason Kandel, ValleyNews.com Editor, 12/28/2006